By Mark Hookham For The Mail On Sunday
Published: 01:47 GMT, 24 February 2019 | Updated: 02:50 GMT, 24 February 2019
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Derrick Cooper, 78, opened one of the schools involved, Underley Hall in Kirkby Lonsdale, in 1976 and ran it for 30 years
Police have been accused of pursuing a ‘witch hunt’ after ten former teachers were cleared of assaulting pupils at two boarding schools.
Critics claim officers were ‘swept along’ by accusations from ex-pupils, with lawyers claiming they had colluded to concoct bogus allegations of physical abuse and cruelty in the 1970s and 1980s in a bid to win compensation payouts.
Cumbria Police this weekend said their investigation into the claims, codenamed Operation Tweed, will be wound up this week – after costing £2.3 million.
That will come as little consolation to Derrick Cooper, 78, whose health collapsed after he was wrongly jailed last year.
Mr Cooper opened one of the schools involved, Underley Hall in Kirkby Lonsdale, in 1976 and ran it for 30 years.
The Court of Appeal last month quashed his convictions for physically abusing two boys but he had already served almost nine months of a 20-month sentence.
